The Epi Team for Haywood County Health and Human Services Public Health Division distributes a quarterly “EpiGram” to community partners, board members, and surveillance participants. Each issue provides information and education by showcasing a specific communicable disease. Each EpiGram also provides a one-sheet reference page listing all the reportable diseases and reporting requirements, notification protocol, and reporting contacts. After-hours contact information is also provided in the EpiGram, as well as communicable disease incidents and trends in Haywood County. Health Director Patrick Johnson got the idea from a similar document in practice at a health department that he toured in Spokane, Washington.
“The EpiGram helps to increase understanding of the importance of surveillance reporting and establish accountability for all involved,” states Johnson. “The providers are expected to report to us; this is a way for us to report back to them.”
The EpiGram has been used as part of the evidence for Activity 2.4 (annual CD reports to the Board of Health). Distribution of the EpiGram provides evidence for Activity 4.1 (communication with surveillance participants), Activity 5.1 (current after-hours call list and evidence of distribution and education of partners to the most current notification protocol) and, depending on the topic, Activity 5.2 (dissemination of alerts by multiple methods).
For more information, contact: Amy Stevens, amy.stevens@haywoodcountync.gov